As the number of programs which are written for electronic devices increases, it is becoming harder to keep track of application usage. While conventional methods exist for reporting usage information related to application software, most fail in more than one regard. Today the tracking methods do not share the information such that other users and developers may see which programs are popular, the methods are not objective, and the methods are not transparent to the user. Furthermore, the methods today do not allow the tracking of content, such as the level of a game to which a user advanced or the chapters in an electronic document which were viewed. Due to these deficiencies, developers and authors may not be able to readily gain useful information to improve their products.
One conventional method of tracking application usage provides software which monitors application usage in terms of duration and battery usage on the device. Unfortunately, this method does not provide for sharing the information and hence is of limited value to developers or other users.
Another conventional method provides for software which monitors application usage in terms of count and time duration and supports exporting the information to a spreadsheet. However, the method is not transparent to the user. Also, developers and other users are generally not aided by the information.
Another conventional method is the UNIX process command (PS) which tracks the duration of execution for every executing application. However, once the application stops executing, the tracking stops. Consequently, there is no cumulative tally of the information, which is necessary for tracking information. Furthermore, this method does not provide for sharing of information with other users or with developers.
A conventional method that shares information tracks the popularity of various content, such as computer games, music, and movies by relying on votes cast by individuals. However, this is not transparent to the user and is not objective. Hence, it is prone to inaccuracies.
There are methods for synchronizing data between two computer systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,000, entitled “Extendible Method and Apparatus For Synchronizing Multiple Files On Two Different Computer Systems” discloses a synchronization process. However, such methods do not share information such that other users and developers may see which programs are popular.
None of these methods provides for a method which gives developers and authors a good idea of how their games or documents are being used. For example, these methods do not provide information as to how far into a game or electronic document a user proceeded before stopping.